SUNDAY, JUNE 16, 2024
After having only recently granted the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) consent to operate the 5 TPD biomethanation plant, the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) has now issued fresh directions to the MMC to cease the operation of the plant within six months.
As a modification to the previous consent, the GSPCB directed the MMC to install additional bio-digester plants at the Sonsoddo Waste Management facility and halt the operation of the 5TPD plant within the specified timeframe.
GSPCB Member Secretary Dr Shamila Monteiro, included this condition in the earlier consent, emphasizing the installation of additional Bio-Digester Plants at the Sonsoddo Solid Waste Management facility while discontinuing the operation of the STPD Bio-Methanation Plant in the SGPDA Market complex.
The GSPCB has also required the MMC to submit a compliance report, while maintaining all other conditions outlined in the Consent to Operate under the Water Act and Air Act unchanged.
The latest directive from the GSPCB to cease operations of the bio-methanation plant within six months has presented a challenge for the MMC.
Without a functioning treatment plant at the Sonsoddo waste management shed, doubts arise regarding the feasibility of setting up bio-digesters within the given timeframe, considering the lengthy tendering process and installation requirements.
Presently, the MMC incurs significant costs transporting around 30 tons of daily wet waste to the Cacora waste treatment plant site.
The 5TPD bio-methanation plant remains inactive as the MMC awaits consent from the GSPCB and permission from the PWD to accept digested leachate at the STP plant in Margao.
With the daily wet waste redirected to the Cacora waste treatment plant, the MMC seems hesitant to resume operations of the 5TPD bio-methanation plant, opting instead to keep it in standby as a backup facility.
Sources indicate that the MMC plans to seek legal advice regarding its contractual obligations with the plant’s contractor in light of the new directive to cease operations after six months, alongside its previous intention to maintain the plant as a backup solution.
However, this is the latest of numerous setbacks the MMC has faced with regard to the functioning of this plant.
While the status of the plant was also the subject of a lengthy debate in the recently concluded assembly sessions with assurances given by the environment minister to address the issue, questions were raised, even by the Chief Minister about the purpose of having such a facility given the constant problems it has been facing.
The GSPCB’s salvo has also indirectly sounded the death knell on the ambitious plan of the MMC to set up two more biomethanation plants, which would be music to the ears of the neighbouring commercial entities, whose proprietors have constantly complained about having to deal with the stench and leachate coming from the single plant.
Gaps in segregation process
One of the biggest issues Margao’s door-to-door garbage collecting is fixing is the fact that often, garbage collected from households, which have been segregated by the residents, are mixed by the personnel collecting the waste, which defeats the purpose of providing each house with two bins, to facilitate the segregation at source. Savio Coutinho, former Chairperson of Margao Municipal Council (MMC) and convenor of the Shadow Council for Margao (SCM) pointed out that the waste is mixed before it even reaches the truck at times while other citizens have claimed that they have seen the segregated waste being dumped together into the trucks.
“The door-to-door waste collection system adopted by the MMC is a money-spinning machine for some vested interests. Though the workers are paid just Rs 9,000 to 10,000 per month by their employer, the Council pays this employer/contractor 21k+ per head per month. The workers are therefore concentrating on picking up only the recyclables from the dry waste, which is sold by them for additional income. Hence the segregation at source gets compromised,” Coutinho alleged.
“Some, very conscious citizens do hand over segregated waste to the workers, but if you peep into the waste bin in which this waste is dumped, you will find that the waste inside is not 100% wet waste. This waste is thereafter picked up by Municipal trucks and taken to Sonsoddo and unloading for further segregation with additional manpower. Subsequently the segregated wet waste is transported to Saligao and Cacora,” Coutinho added.
“Some restaurants give 100% segregated waste, but many don’t follow strict segregation, as such you are bound to find other dry waste mixed with their wet waste,” he added further.
MMC aims at Zero Waste Landfill; invites EOI for 10 TPD Gasification Technology based Waste Disposal plant at Sonsoddo
A 10 Tonnes per day (TPD) Gasification Technology based Waste Disposal System is proposed to be set up at Sonsoddo for treatment of Municipal Solid Waste. Goa Energy Development Agency has invited Expression of Interest (EoI) cum e-Tender for the plant on behalf of Margao Municipal Council (MMC). The EOI is invited under the two-bid system for selection of eligible firms or Agency for Design, Supply, Installation, Testing, Commissioning of the plant with 5 years Comprehensive operation and maintenance contract (CMC). MMC generates around 10 Tonnes per day (TPD) of inert and rejects which is presently sent to cement factories for co-incineration. The proposed plant is an effort to create an infrastructure for processing of the inert and rejects to achieve the goal of Zero Waste Landfill, states the tender document. In the first phase, the plant of the capacity of 10 TPD is planned.
